Rules of company profiling

The most requested task from private investigators currently in Hungary is getting exact, reliable and objective information on companies, and compiling company histories. This is also the first step in business intelligence. It is more than just a useful service allowing the identification of fictional or phantom companies; a report can essentially form the basis of a sound future business relationship, assisting in the preparation of fair and mutually beneficial deals. This service is therefore an important part of the preparation phase for building a business relationship, which can only be based on accurate and objective information. Therefore profiling a company is part of a decision making process which requires fully accurate and objective information; it is the private detective agency’s responsibility to provide this.
We must make a distinction between company profiling and company history. Company profiling – or to be exact: writing a company profile report – shows the current shareholders, ownership structure, the principals, employee composition, market position, financial standing, main activities, contacts and affiliates of a given company. Company history is all of the above, but also includes the complete history of these elements from the time the company was formed. 
This procedure – called legal intelligence – starts with the examination of the public database of the given Court of Registration. The detective visits the Court of Registration with territorial jurisdiction, and requests the company documents that are stored in folders. Then he reads the files based on the client’s need, takes notes, or requests non-official or official photocopies. The detective – regardless of the client’s exact needs – always takes notes (or pictures, where possible) of the following: owners of the company, ownership structure, directors of the company, members of the supervisory board and the company’s address(es) since this data forms the basis of the possible targets of future confidential data gathering.
The most important data can be found in the following documents:

• articles of association, foundation documents, corporate charters and the amendments thereof,
• minutes of the shareholders meetings,
• different amendment motions (i.e. company’s name, address, branch, ownership structure, officials, members of the supervisory board, increases or decreases to the subscribed capital, etc.) and the corresponding court decisions,
• balance sheets, their auxiliary documents, business reports, and
• judicial review proceedings.

We must note here that if the company in question is an association or foundation, the relevant and up-to-date information can be acquired at the corresponding county court.
After having finished studying the company files, our detectives – in order to establish the actual situation – visit the company in person in every case to gather data on the field, meaning – depending on the circumstances – they conduct covert hearings and visit every known address of the company and make inquiries there as well. This can be essential when identifying a fictitious or phantom company that exists only on paper. For data gathering purposes, it can be very useful to get the company’s brochures other promotional material. These documents can prove beyond any doubt that a company committed copyright or trademark infringement, for example. 
These methods obviously do not allow deep information gathering. For this purpose, our detectives use occasional informants, who can either be former owners, fired officials and employees – in fact anybody of whom it can be suspected that they are no longer loyal to the company. These people should be approached carefully lest they find out the real purpose of our investigators’ inquiries. 
In addition, we conduct covert visual reconnaissance at the branches of manufacturing and commercial companies in order to see exactly how many machines, equipment or goods in stock they have. If a client asks for it, we can conduct a test purchase – with the help of a suitable legend or the use of a cover company. Test purchasing is essential in brand protection cases, as it allows us to find counterfeit goods or uncover severe trademark infringement.
Afterwards, we evaluate all the data we gathered, especially when compiling a complete company history. It has happened many times in practice that what first looked like a simple company history led to one individual, thus the objective of the whole investigation shifted from the company to the individual. This the right direction from the standpoint of objective investigation, as if someone acquires significant share in many companies or is an official in many companies, we’ll surely find at least one company among the many that was founded for speculative reasons, mainly for “invoice manufacturing”, leading into a new domain, namely tax-related crimes.
In order to compile an exact and objective company profile, it is imperative to map the real and actual financial situation of the company. This procedure is generally necessary when a creditor wants to see the real situation of a debtor. In cases like this the private detective agency’s business intelligence service tries to establish the company’s solvency and cash flow, its willingness to repay the debt(s), and its general creditworthiness.
Checking company owners, high level officials of associations and NGOs regarding their financial standing, creditworthiness and reliability is a wise measure not only when there’s debt involved, but when a businessperson wants to find the right business partner for their company, or wants to be prepared before a substantial financial transaction or business deal. It is common practice for banks in Hungary to check their clients who apply for bigger credits or mortgages, and insurance companies also regularly check their clients – client monitoring is a common practice in business.
Our private detective agency establishes the real financial status of companies and natural persons thoroughly and puts emphasis on finding every real estate and movable asset that can be foreclosed, regular sources of income, plus debt and credit. When checking a company’s creditworthiness, we look into its financial reliability, meaning whether its bills are paid on time or not, plus its profitability, incomes, market prospects, the level of its management, the value of its assets including goods and real estate, plus its standing regarding taxes and other public dues.
It may seem banal, but much current and valuable economic, business and market information can be gathered from various printed and electronic mediums, and with the directed and selective monitoring of the Internet. That’s why we always closely monitor all the relevant information regarding our target on the Internet, including the company’s own website, as well as news portals of television and radio stations. We search for the high level officials of our targets on such community networks such as iWiW and myVIP, as these sites give almost unlimited access to an individual’s personal connections, plus we can establish their age, marital status, education history, job, hobbies and gain access to their personal photos as well. 
Using these complex methods, we not only facilitate the decision-making process of our clients, but we also save then considerable time and energy.